Glenrowan| Official Travel and Tourism Website | Heritage Siege Precinct Ned Kelly's Last Stand Glenrowan is a tangible link with one of Australia's most infamous historical figures, Ned Kelly. He is part of the nation's mythology, repeatedly re-emerging through Australia's art, literature and music. Dressed in a helmet and suit of armour made of ploughs, Kelly made his famous last stand on 28 June 1880 at Glenrowan following a siege between his gang and Melbourne troopers. Visitors to the Glenrowan Heritage Precinct can see the key sites of the final siege and Kelly conflict. Glenrowan Heritage Precinct was included in the National Heritage List on 5 July 2005. The Glenrowan Heritage Precinct is the area of central Glenrowan which is associated with the notorious siege leading up to the capture of Ned Kelly and the deaths of his other gang members Joe Byrne, Dan Kelly and Steve Hart in June 1880. The precinct is divided by the railway line and the railway station which played a pivotal part in the drama.

North of the railway line in what is now known as Siege Street is the site of Jones's Glenrowan Inn where the bushrangers held out. Further north and east is the place where Ned was finally captured. To the south of the railway line is the site of the former McDonnell's Hotel where the Kelly sympathisers gathered. After two years of outlawry in the North East of Victoria, Kelly and his gang planned to ambush and derail a police train. This action is said to have been planned as a precursor to a general uprising in the north east. In the event the police took longer than anticipated to arrive, resulting in the gang taking many captives in the town. Eventually, in the early hours of 28 June 1880, the police were warned of the gang's presence and surrounded the Glenrowan Inn. After a fierce night time gun battle which resulted in the wounding and capture of Ned Kelly early after daybreak, the police set fire to the inn in the afternoon and burnt it to the ground sealing the fate of the other outlaws inside.

Ned Kelly was later tried in Melbourne and hanged on 11 November 1880 for the murder of police at Stringybark Creek in 1878. Since the siege, the town of Glenrowan has developed but the topography of the siege site remains largely unaltered and is quite capable of interpretation today. Pick up a copy of the Glenrowan Town Map from the Glenrowan Bakehouse which outlines a self-guided walk around the Heritage Siege Precinct. Why is it significant? The Glenrowan Heritage Precinct is historically significant as the place most intimately connected with the legend that surrounds Ned Kelly, among the most well known of Australian historical figures. In a similar way the Eureka Historical Precinct (H1874) invokes the history of another rebellion against authority. The small town of Glenrowan was central to the history of the Kelly gang. The members lived in the district and spent much time there among a population generally sympathetic to the outlaws.

The plan for a final showdown with police by derailing a train was a feasible if reckless plan that suited itself to the topography of the town where the railway line between Benalla and Wangaratta makes a sweeping curve on a steep embankment. The siege, the police cordon, the capture of Ned and the burning of the Glenrowan Inn are firmly implanted in Australian folklore and are directly related to this physical place. Significant fabric remaining from the event are the Stationmaster's house (relocated to 16 Siege Street from its original site) and the railway platform (the current station building is a recent remodelling). Many of the mature trees existed at the time of the siege and one group, the 'Kelly copse' where Ned tethered his horse, is of particular note.The stump and logwhere he was captured are no longer visible but remnants of the stump may exist below ground. The Glenrowan Heritage Precinct is archaeologically significant for its potential to reveal artefacts from the siege event. A large volume of ammunition was expended and there is a tradition of discovery of spent bullets from the soil.

As well, the sites of demolished early buildings such as McDonnell's Hotel and the Glenrowan Inn have the potential to reveal artefacts both from the siege and from their everyday use. Glenrowan: The Siege That Shaped A Nation Email a friend NED Kelly can never die. This most famous of Australian bushrangers continues to offer a deep well of material for fact, fiction and cinema. He remains both saint and sinner, a spirited defender of his family and a killer of men; an intriguing character. Kelly was hanged in November 1880, some months after the siege in the Victorian hamlet of Glenrowan where he was captured and his mates killed. This followed a series of clashes, some bloodier than others, across northeast Victoria. There have been wagonloads of treatises on Kelly and his gang, some a tad turgid. But Ian Shaw provides a fresh, detailed and dramatic account of the siege and all its players. Shaw's careful consideration of Glenrowan allows him to recount history in concise, most readable language.

He fleshes out the drama with little tripping over psychological or political polemic although Shaw may conclude, as does a later royal commission, that not all the authorities were as true and just as reported. After outlaw Joe Byrne shot dead informer Aaron Sherrit, Shaw says, police facts were either mismatched or imagined. "It was the beginning of a cover-up of police incompetence from one angle, and of sheer cowardice from another. But in many ways it was symptomatic of what was becoming characteristic of the events unfolding at Glenrowan confusion." Glenrowan: The Siege That Shaped A Nation Ian W. Shaw 1000+ images about Ned Kelly on Pinterest | Ned kelly, Police and The siege Forward Aaron Sherritt had grown up as a close friend of Joe Byrne. The Police actively worked to increase tensions between Sherritt and the Kelly Gang and 4 Policemen were sent to his Hut, their presence convinced the gang he was a traitor. On the 26 June 1880 Sherritt was at home with his wife, her Mother and the 4 policemen. A neighbour, who had reportedly been captured by Joe Byrne and Dan Kelly, called out "Aaron".

When Sherritt answered the door, Joe Byrne shot him point-blank in the chest. 1 1000+ images about Ned Kelly on Pinterest | Ned kelly, Armour and Australia Old Melbourne Gaol. Between 1842 and its closure in 1929 the gaol was the scene of 133 hangings including Australia's most infamous citizen, the bushranger Ned Kelly. See More Ned Kelly Ned Kelly R10643 Ned Kelly the day before he was hanged, 1880 Description This copy of a black-and-white photograph, originally taken by police photographer Charles Nettleton, shows the outlaw and convicted murderer Ned Kelly on 10 November 1880 in Melbourne Gaol. The head-and-shoulders photographic portrait in an oval mount shows Kelly's elaborately combed hair and full beard, and provides a glimpse of the prison uniform and neck scarf he was wearing. The image was taken from a glass plate negative and measures 50 mm x 60 mm. Acknowledgements: From the collection of the National Archives of Australia.

View content Educational value Edward 'Ned' Kelly (1855-80), leader of the Kelly gang, is Australia's most famous bushranger. Kelly contended that he and his family were the victims of police harassment as they struggled against poverty in north-eastern Victoria, but at the time the Kellys were also widely suspected of cattle and horse stealing. Members of Kelly's family were brought before the courts some 18 times before 1878, but only half of these appearances resulted in guilty verdicts. This is seen by some as evidence of harassment, but by others as evidence of their bad reputation. Kelly's involvement in more serious crime began when he went into hiding with his brother Dan in October 1878 to escape arrest for the alleged shooting of a trooper named Fitzpatrick. Joined by Joe Byrne and Steve Hart, the Kelly brothers ambushed a four-man police pursuit on 26 October at Stringybark Creek. Kelly took responsibility for killing three of the police. Declared outlaws, Kelly and his gang eluded police for 16 months, during which time they carried out robberies at the Euroa and Jerilderie banks.

Ned Kelly was captured and the three others died as a result of a shoot-out at Glenrowan, despite all four wearing steel armour. Kelly was tried for murder on 28 and 29 October 1880 in Melbourne, found guilty and sentenced to death. The sentence of hanging was carried out 13 days later on 11 November. This police photograph is one of the few fully authenticated images of Australia's most notorious outlaw. It originates from the Central Register of Male Prisoners in Victoria's Public Record Office and shows prisoner number 10926 described as Edward 'Ned' Kelly, age 25. The original photograph was taken by Charles Nettleton (1826-1902), a well-known Melbourne photographer who worked on contract as official police photographer for more than 25 years. Police and prison authorities in Victoria were quick to adopt the new technology of photography, and Kelly was photographed several times during his criminal career. From 1873 onwards it was police practice to photograph a prisoner after transfer from a country lock-up, before release and immediately prior to execution.

Accordingly, Kelly was photographed in mid-1873, March 1874 and in full-length and head-and-shoulders before his execution in 1880. Kelly's defiance of authority, his position as an underdog and the imagery of the homemade armour have made him an Australian folk hero. By the early 20th century his image was appearing in cartoons as a type of Robin Hood figure. Since then he has been the subject of at least ten films, numerous books and a series of paintings by Sir Sidney Nolan. An image of Kelly appeared in the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. Topics Ned Kelly | australia.gov.au Australia.gov.au Helping you find government information and services Search form Women in colonial times Ned Kelly Unknown, Portrait of the bushranger Ned Kelly, 1880, glass plate negative. Image courtesy of Melbourne University Archives: 88 137. The bushranger Ned Kelly is one of Australia's greatest folk heroes. He has been memorialised by painters, writers, musicians and filmmakers alike. More books, songs and websites have been written about Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang than any other group of Australian historical figures.

Bushranging was said to have ended with the shooting of the Kelly Gang in 1880 at Glenrowan, Victoria, made possible by the introduction of the Felons Apprehension Act 1865 (NSW) which allowed outlawed bushrangers to be shot, rather than arrested and sent to trial. Irish rebels and wild colonial boys Before the end of transportation in 1840, more than 50,000 Irish 'rebels' were exiled to Australia. Their mistrust of British authority came with them, along with their vehement independence as Catholics, specifically excluded from holding public office or government positions until after 1900. It has been argued that this independence of the Irish contributed to the showdown with Ned Kelly and the police at Glenrowan in 1880. Many of the transported convicts were also agitators, machine breakers, political activists and union organisers. These included the Scottish lawyer Thomas Muir, transported in 1794 for handing out copies of Tom Paine's The Rights of Man.

Ned Kelly Edward 'Ned' Kelly was born at Beveridge in 1855, the first-born son of an Irish Catholic couple. His father, John 'Red' Kelly was an ex-convict (transported for the theft of two pigs), who eloped with Ellen Quinn, an Irish 'bounty migrant', from Van Dieman's Land (later Tasmania) to Port Phillip. The Kellys settled in the Victorian ranges north of Melbourne, eking out a living on the edge of the squatter's rich lands. Red Kelly supplemented his income by horse stealing. After his arrest and gaoling for horse-stealing, Red Kelly died before finishing his sentence. Ellen moved the family to a slabhut at Eleven Mile Creek in the north-west of the colony where Ned became the main breadwinner, taking jobs as a timber cutter and rural worker - ringbarking, breaking in horses, mustering cattle and fencing. Unknown, Kate Kelly, sister of Ned Kelly, 1880s, B&W postcard. Image courtesy of State LIbrary of Victoria: H23557. Ned Kelly grew up with the tales of bushrangers and knew the tale of Ben Hall well.

At the age of 14, Ned was arrested for stealing 10 shillings from a Chinese man and reportedly to have announced that he 'was going to be a bushranger'. Ned was sent as a kind of apprentice bush worker to Harry Power, one of the last of the convicts transported to Van Dieman's Land in 1842 for stealing a pair of shoes, who took to bushranging after escaping from Pentridge Gaol. A year later, Kelly was charged with robbery under arms on one occasion when he was holding Power's horse. He was freed for lack of evidence, although a few months later has was back in the lockup for assault. During this time, Ned also gained some notoriety as the 'champion' boxer in the Beechworth district. The shooting of Constable Fitzpatrick Ned's real troubles with the police began when his mother, Ellen Kelly, was arrested for aiding and abetting in the attempted murder of Constable Arthur Fitzpatrick on the 15th of April. Fitzpatrick visited the Kelly home to serve warrants to arrest Dan Kelly for alleged horse stealing.

As a result of the subsequent brawl, Ned and Dan fled to the bush where they were joined by Joe Byrne and Steve Hart. They became the Kelly gang. Fitzpatrick returned to the police station with a different story which involved being hit on the head with a shovel, an ambush by Kelly sympathisers and being shot at three times by Ned Kelly. Constable Fitzpatrick, was later dismissed from the police force as 'a liar and a larrikin'. Fitzpatrick was in charge of the Greta Police Station for a few days and had been warned to stay away from the Kellys - a warning he ignored, boasting in several hotels that he would 'fix the Greta mob'. In 1878, Judge Redmond Barry sentenced Ellen Kelly, to three years hard labour for assaulting a police officer, even though the officer's testimony was dubious. While Ned Kelly did not try to break into Beechworth gaol to rescue his mother as planned, he offered an ultimatum to the government of the day: ...to give those people who are suffering innocence, justice and liberty. if not I will be compelled to show some colonial stratagems which will open the eyes of not only the Victoria Police and inhabitants but also the whole British Army...

(Jerilderie Letter, p. 19) Samuel Calvert (1828 - 1913), A search party in the Wombat Ranges, 1879, print: engraving. Image courtesy of State Library of Victoria: IAN21/02/79/21. Hiding out in the Wombat Ranges Ned was so enraged that he made a hide-out, with his brother Dan and their mates Joe Byrne and Steve Hart, at the head of the King River, a virtually impenetrable place where Harry Power had long eluded escape (before he had been eventually caught with the help of an informant and black trackers). Ned Kelly used this hide-out to his advantage, aided by sympathetic 'informers', to confirm who made their way into the Wombat Ranges. Ned was furious about the use of the Felons Apprehension Act and the use of black trackers brought in from Queensland.

The Gang relied upon their network of friends, 'and in this manner they could find retreats, over hundreds of miles of impenetrable mountains amongst which they had been brought up all their lives, and where they knew every road, gully and hiding place.' (Superintendent Francis Hare) Unknown, The bush ranging tragedy: scenes and incidents picture, 1878, print: wood engraving. Image courtesy of State Library of Victoria: A/S21/12/78/149. Stringybark Creek The police were determined to hunt down the Kelly Gang, and in October 1878 a party of four police with heavy arsenal were sent out from Mansfield. Their camp at Stringybark Creek received a surprise visit from the Kellys, with Ned commanding 'Bail up! Throw up your arms'. Constable McIntyre surrendered but Constable Lonigan went for his revolver, before being shot dead by Ned Kelly. When the other two police appeared and, Sergeant Kennedy reached for his revolver, he was mortally wounded. Constable Scanlon was then killed trying to drag his rifle from its holster. Outlaws The government’s reaction to the Stringybark Creek murders was swift and severe.

Within ten days of the murders, the Berry Government had enacted the Felons’ Apprehension Act 1878, and called on Ned Kelly and his brother Dan to surrender or be declared outlaws under the Act’s draconian provisions, which authorised any citizen to shoot a declared outlaw on sight. The Victorian Government also committed a major outlay in public funds to the Kelly hunt and, after the Jerilderie raid in February 1879, combined with New South Wales to increase the reward for the gang’s capture to £8000, the fourth increase in the reward in the space of just four months. Shooting of Sherritt Unknown, The Kelly Gang - from an original photograph, Steve Hart, Dan Kelly, Ned Kelly, c 1870, postcard: gelatin silver. Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia: nla.pic-an14034948. In June 1880, Joe Byrne and Dan Kelly visited Aaron Sherritt, a close friend of Joe Byrne and whom Joe and Ned Kelly had helped fence his property. This, however, had only marked him as a Kelly accomplice and Sherritt had ended up colluding with police.

Four policemen were hiding in Sherritt's hut and, after Sherritt was shot by Byrne for betraying Kelly, the police remained hiding, using the women in the hut as hostages. The Kelly's shooting of Sherritt made it look as if the Gang could move about the district as they wished, and the police redoubled their efforts to capture the Gang. The Glenrowan shoot-out After more bank robberies, the Kelly Gang had their 'last stand' in the small town of Glenrowan, Victoria in 1880, where they took 60 hostages in a hotel. The Gang established a base at the Glenrowan Hotel, determined to fight it out with police when they came. Kelly planned to derail the expected train carrying the police, but this was prevented by a school teacher, let out of the hotel, who flagged the train to a halt. Led by Superintendent Hare and assisted by local Constable Bracken, the troopers attacked the Gang in the hotel. Superintendent Hare and other police officers were wounded when the Gang shot at the police. The townsfolk were allowed to leave the hotel when there was a lull in the fighting.

Ned Kelly was shot in the arm and thumb, and retreated to the bush, from where he hoped to attack police from behind. Knowing that the Felons Apprehension Act meant they could be shot, the Kelly Gang all wore suits of steel armour, made during the previous year. Despite this, Joe Byrne was shot in the groin and died. Dan Kelly and Steve Hart were shot dead, and the hotel was burned to the ground by the police. As dawn broke, Ned Kelly, in his armour, approached the police from the rear and began shooting at them with his revolver, despite his wounds. After half an hour, he was shot in both unprotected legs. A wounded Ned was arrested and charged with the murder of a policeman. Ned Kelly was tried and convicted of the murder of Constable Lonigan at Stringybark Creek. Melbourne Gaol In gaol, Kelly wrote a long letter to the authorities demonstrating the discrimination against poor Irish settlers. Despite public protests, the judgement of Redmond Barry prevailed. Kelly spoke the immortal last words 'Such is life' and was hanged on 11th November 1880 at Melbourne Gaol.

A flawed hero Ned Kelly's final defiant stand against the Felons Apprehension Act and his pleas for justice to end discrimination against poor Irish settlers did end up opening the eyes of people. Ned Kelly in his armour came to symbolise a fight by a flawed hero, a convicted criminal, for 'justice and liberty' and 'innocent people'. This captured the imagination of writers, authors and the general public alike. Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang – films Unknown, The actual armour as worn by Ned Kelly (Image is of a motion picture still, probably The Story of the Kelly Gang), 1906, negative. Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia: nla.pic-an24932346. The Australian film industry produced what was probably the world's first full-length feature film in 1906. The film was the Tait Brothers' production The Story of the Kelly Gang . It was a success in both Australian and British theatres, and it was also the beginning of a genre of bushranger stories. In November 2006 the National Film and Sound Archive released a new digital restoration of The Story of the Kelly Gang.

This restoration incorporated 11 minutes of material discovered in the United Kingdom. Prior to this discovery, only a few minutes of footage was available. The Story of the Kelly Gang can be seen when visiting the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. While the Australian public took a liking to bushranger stories, the New South Wales police department did not. The production of films about bushrangers was banned in 1912. The Kelly story, however, outlasted the ban and has been re-filmed a number of times since. Other well known films about Ned Kelly include: Ned Kelly (1970) starring English rock singer Mick Jagger as Ned; the Trial of Ned Kelly (1977) starring John Waters and Gerard Kennedy; the 1980 mini-series The Last Outlaw starring John Jarratt, Steve Bisley and Sigrid Thornton; and the 2003 Gregor Jordan directed Ned Kelly which starred Heath Ledger. Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang – books and art Sidney Nolan (1917-1992), Kelly and horse, 1946, enamel on composition board. Image courtesy of the Nolan Gallery.

The Australian author Peter Carey won the 2001 Booker Prize for his fictional novel True History of the Kelly Gang . Carey's inspiration, in part, came from the Sidney Nolan series of Kelly paintings, some of which can be seen at the Nolan Collection Gallery. The novel's first person narrative style was crafted from Ned's own 'Jerilderie Letter' – an account of the dramatic events leading to him being outlawed in the 1870s. Carey's book is not the first to be written about Ned and the Kelly Gang. There are many other books including Ned Kelly: A Short Life (1995), Ned Kelly: The Authentic Illustrated History (1984 and reprinted in 2001), I am Ned Kelly (1980) and the Inner History of the Kelly Gang (1929), a very brave move on behalf of the author, J J Kenneally, considering that some of the people being discussed were still alive. Sidney Nolan's Ned Kelly series are probably the most well known of the art works about Ned Kelly. Many other artists, including Norman Lindsay, have also produced a variety of art works of this Australian bushranger.

Stringybark Creek, where three police officers were shot and killed by Ned Kelly in 1878, and the gang's bush hideaway, both located in the Benalla region of Victoria, have been added to the Victorian Heritage Register. The two camp sites are significant to the cultural history of the state for their association with the nation's most famous bushranger. Useful links Glenrowan, VIC - Aussie Towns Aussie Towns Glenrowan, VIC Scene of Ned Kelly's last battle with the Victorian police - now a tourist town. On the surface Glenrowan is a small town now by-passed by the Hume Freeway. In reality, because of the famous events which occurred in June 1880 when the Kelly Gang, with Ned Kelly dressed in his famous armour, were captured in the town after a violent and bloody siege, it has become a magnet for tourists. Today, not surprisingly, it is a popular tourist town built around a single theme: Ned Kelly. Location Glenrowan is located 234 km north-west from Melbourne just off the Hume Freeway, between Benalla and Wangaratta. It is 220 metres above sea level.

^ TOP Origin of Name Although it sounds as though it is the name of a village or valley in Scotland, the town was actually named after James and George Rowan who came to the area in 1846 and farmed the land until 1858. Things to See and Do Historic Sites Such was the indifference to the Kelly myth that the buildings which were an integral part of the Kelly siege have all been destroyed. If he were alive today Ned Kelly would not recognise the town. However, because of the boom in tourism, there are a number of plaques and markers (wooden statues depicting the various characters involved in the siege), which allow the visitor to trace the events of 28 June, 1880. They include the railway station, the site where the Glenrowan Inn stood before it was burned down and the gully where the troopers took cover. There is a useful map ( ) which clearly indicates the key locations in the Kelly siege including the place where Kelly was captured, the railway station and the site of the Glenrowan Inn which was burnt down.

Ned Kelly's Last Stand at the Glenrowan Theme Park The Glenrowan Theme Park, an $8.5 million theatrical experience, has been the main attraction in Glenrowan for the past thirty years. It is a multi-million dollar cinematic and theatrical depiction of the Kelly gang's last stand, enacted by computerised robots in the manner of Disneyland. There are different sets which drramatically depict the different moments of the siege - the waiting room of Glenrowan railway station, the hotel, the backyard, the graveyard, the gunfight, the burning of the hotel and the execution at Melbourne Gaol. It lasts for forty minutes and moves from one room to another. Authentic props are incorporated into the show including the bar of McDonnell's Tavern, a hand-gun owned by Ned and Sergeant Kennedy's hitching post. The show commences every half-hour from 9.30 am to 4.30 pm. every day. For more details, tel: (03) 5766 2367 or check out Kelly Statue - The Big Ned This is the third Big Ned Kelly to appear in Glenrowan. The first was stolen and dumped in the river.

The second could only be seen for a fee at Kellyland (now the Glenrowan Theme Park) and this, the third, was commissioned from Kevin Thomas, a Sydney-based special effects technician. It stands 6-metres tall, weighs 1.5 tonnes, is made out of fibreglass and was transported down the Hume Highway from Sydney in April, 1992. At the time it cost $12,000. It depicts Kelly at the time of his capture at Glenrowan - clad in armour, rifle in hand. Kate's Cottage and Kelly Museum Kate's Cottage combines Kelly memorabilia, a museum and a replica of the Kelly homestead. It is named after Ned's mother. Visitors walk through the shop and enter Ned Kelly Memorial Museum. Out the back is a stringybark replica of the Kelly homestead made with a broadaxe and adze and decorated with 19th century furnishings. It is claimed that Ned built the original around 1877. There are other pieces of 19th century memorabilia including a coach and a blacksmith's shed.

It is open daily from 9.00 am to 5.30 pm, tel: (03) 5766 2448. Glenrowan Cobb & Co Souvenir Gift Shop and Museum The old Cobb & Co ticket office is a combination of museum and gift shop. The centrepiece is an authentic reconstruction of the town's original Cobb & Co changing station and the shop includes such tourist wonders as Ned bells, Ned belt buckles, Ned caps, Ned letter openers, Ned place mats and even Ned socks tel: (03) 5766 2409. It is open from 9.00 am to 5.30 pm daily.

Other Attractions in the Area Warby-Ovens National Park The Warby-Ovens National Park (14,655 ha), located 26 km north of Glenrowan and 10 km west of Wangaratta, "is characterised by three distinct vegetation communities - the granitic hills and woodlands of the Warby Range, the Box-Ironbark of the Killawarra Forest and the Redgum forest and wetlands of the unregulated Ovens Heritage River." In 1844 Ben Warby (after whom the park is named) settled in the area. By the 1870s the locals believed that Ned Kelly was hiding in the Warby Ranges and using Mount Glenrowan as a lookout point. The park was established in 1978 and been growing in size with a number of acquisitions over the years. It is an area of exceptional bushland incorporating waterfalls (notably Briens Gorge Falls), springtime wildflowers, lookouts (notably Ryans Lookout) across to the Victorian Alps and wildlife including black wallabies, echidnas, wedge-tailed eagles, lorikeets, barking owls and sugar gliders.

The park is popular for walking, mountain bike riding, prospecting and fishing. The park has a number of walks. There is a track to the summit of Mount Glenrowan (9.4 km return from Taminick Gap), and the short walks to Briens Gorge Falls and Salisbury Falls (4.5 km). For more information check out ^ TOP History * It is believed that the Pallanganmiddang Aborigines occupied the area prior to European settlement. They were probably part of the Taungurong language group. * The first Europeans to settle in the area were the Rowan brothers who arrived in 1846. * A townsite developed slowly but it was not until the 1860s that it became a significant service centre for the area. * The town was officially proclaimed in 1861. * By the 1870s the town had a post office (1870) and a railway station (1873). * On 27 and 28 June, 1880 the town achieved fame when Ned Kelly and his gang fought a battle with the police. Ned wore his famous head piece during the battle.

See below for detailed account of the events. * The passenger railway service closed in 1981. Ned Kelly at Glenrowan (a) The Background In 1867 the Kelly family (Ned was only 12 at the time) moved to Eleven Mile Creek, south-west of Glenrowan. They had family connections in the area and it was believed that their relatives were probably involved in cattle and horse rustling. Two years later young Ned was arrested for armed robbery but the charges were dismissed. Then in 1870 he was jailed for six months for assaulting a hawker and sending the hawker's wife a pair of calf's testicles and an indecent note. He was only 15 at the time. In 1871, shortly after being released for custody, Ned was convicted for receiving a stolen mare. This time his sentence was three years. Released from prison he worked for two years as a timber getter near Mansfield but by 1877, when he was 22, he was arrested at Benalla for drunkenness. It seemed the Kellys were always in trouble.

In April 1878 a warrant was issued for the arrest of Ned's youngest brother Dan on a charge of horse theft. Constable Fitzpatrick went to the Kelly home to arrest Dan. He later claimed he had been shot by Ned although Ned claimed he had been hundreds of miles away at the time. Regardless of whether the accusations were correct rewards were now offered for the arrest of Ned and Dan and Ned's mother and her son-in-law received prison sentences for aiding and abetting an 'attempted murder'. Ned and Dan fled to the mountains where they were joined by Steve Hart and Joe Byrne. This quartet became known as the Kelly Gang and shortly afterwards Ned killed three policemen. They were declared outlaws and a reward offered for their capture, alive or dead. Subsequently the gang went on to rob banks at Euroa and Jerilderie, allegedly to finance a campaign to free their mother. After that they disappeared for 16 months. (b) The Events at Glenrowan In June 1880 Kelly hatched a plan to rob a train.

The plan was to derail a train at Glenrowan, capture the police and take them into the hills, then rob Benalla's banks and exchange the booty and the captured police for Mrs Kelly. On Saturday June 26,1880 the Kelly Gang travelled to the home of police informer, Aaron Sherritt, who was supposedly under the protection of the four troopers. The gang killed Sherritt assuming the troopers would raise the alarm and police reinforcements would come by train from Benalla. However the troopers hid in Sherritt's house and the train was delayed. The gang then rode to Glenrowan where they forced two railway workers to tear up a section of railway track, cut the telegraph wires and took over the Glenrowan Inn with about 60 people in it. A schoolmaster managed to warn the train and it was halted t Glenrowan station at about 3.00 am on the Monday morning. Ned had fashioned a 40 kg suit out of mouldboard plough shares which included a cylindrical headpiece to cover his face. However the rest of his body was uncovered and when he confronted the police he was wounded in the arm, hand and foot.

When reinforcements arrived there were 34 police at the scene. Joe Byrne bled to death from a bullet wound to the groin. Ned escaped but returned at 5.00 am and was shot 28 times. The police set fire to the hotel to smoke out Dan Kelly (aged 19) and Steve Hart (aged 20) but they appear to have taken poison. One policeman and an Aboriginal tracker were wounded. (c) The Trial and Execution Ned Kelly was tried in Melbourne for murder and sentenced to death. A petition with 60,000 signatures called for a reprieve, a personal appeal was made to the governor and a public meeting the night before the proposed execution was attended by 4,000 supporters. However, he was hanged on 11 November 1880. On this day: The Kelly Gang's last stand - Australian Geographic The burnt remains of the Glenrowan Inn, after a siege between the Kelly Gang and Victorian Police.

Image Credit: John Bray/State Library of Victoria On this day: The Kelly Gang's last stand BY Matt Ingles | June 27, 2014 On 27 June 1880 the Kelly Gang's last desperate shoot-out echoed across Glenrowan, Victoria. It left three members of the Kelly Gang dead and their leader Ned Kelly in irons. Ned Kelly finally farewelled by family THE FINAL CHAPTER OF the infamous Kelly Gang began on 27 June 1880, when, after eluding the police for almost two years, their luck ran out in the small town of Glenrowan, Victoria. The Gang consisted of Ned Kelly , his brother Dan, Joseph Byrne and Steve Hart, and they had been on the run from the police after a number of incidents. Prior to the Glenrown Dan and Joe had shot a police informant named Aaron Smith. A few days later, after a sizable police hunt, the desperate bushrangers held up the local railway station and then took 60 of the townspeople hostage at the Glenrowan Inn. The hostages included the owner of the inn Ann Jones, her children, and other members of the town.

Among them were about 20 Kelly sympathisers. With police surrounding the building the Kelly Gang began firing, wearing armour made out of plough parts that Ned had been constructed in the aftermath of a three-day bank robbery. Joseph Byrne was soon shot in the groin and died of his wounds, while the other three continued to fight well into the night. During a lull in the fighting, Dan Kelly and the police struck a bargain and the hostages were able to make their way to safety. With only the gang members left inside, the police then set fire to the building. When the smoke finally cleared the burnt bodies of Steve Hart and Dan were found in a back room. The next morning Ned Kelly emerged from nearby bush behind the police blockade, injured but alive, after retreating there sometime during the night. As he walked out shooting his revolver, policemen aimed low at his legs, which were unprotected. And so, in a hail of bullets, Ned Kelly was finally captured. History of the Kelly Gang Ned had grown up in the town of Beveridge, roughly 50km north of Melbourne.

Despite being known locally as a hero after saving seven-year-old Dick Shelton from drowning when he was 10, in later life he was known as something of a ruffian. By October 1878 Ned, who was on the run from assault charges, had teamed up with his younger brother Dan, and friends Joseph Byrne and Steve Hart to form the Kelly Gang. In late 1878, after numerous smaller run-ins with police, things had come to a head near Stringybark Creek when an attempt to corner and apprehend the gang had ended in the death of three police officers (Sergeant Michael Kennedy, and Constables Michael Scanlon and Thomas Lonigan). While hiding out in the bush, they went on to commit two major bank robberies at Euroa (Vic) and Jerilderie (NSW). The almost two years later, on 25 June 1880, gang members Dan and Joe went to the valley where Aaron Sherritt, a friend possibly turned police informant, had a small farm. Reportedly, Dan and Joe had captured Anton Weekes, a neighbour, in order to lure Aaron outside.

When Aaron opened his door, Joe Byrne shot him point-blank in the chest in front of his wife and mother-in-law, whom they allowed to leave. The gang then held four police officers assigned to protect Aaron captive in the house for 12 hours before they stole back into the bush. Siege of the Glenrowan Inn After a lengthy hunt through bushlands roughly 200km north-east of Melbourne, the police finally cornered the gang at the Glenrowan Inn. Volleys of shots rang out from both sides. After the smoke and gunshots died down it became clear that a total of nine people had been killed during the siege (three gang members, three police, two bystanders and an informer). Another five were injured. After his capture Ned Kelly was tried and eventually hanged for his crimes , on 11 November 1880 at Old Melbourne Gaol. He was only 25 years old. The owner of the Glenrowan Inn, Ann Jones, reportedly wanted to sue the government for £1050 as a result of the police burning down her inn during the siege (she only received £265, barely enough to cover the legal costs).

Her 11-year-old son Jack was also accidentally shot by police during siege and later died in hospital. The Kelly Gang legend Ever since Kelly's arrest there has been debate about his true nature. Today Dr Amanda Kaladelfos, a history researcher at Griffith University, compares him to Robin Hood. "Kelly articulated a struggle between rich and poor that resonated with many at a time when the Victorian government's land policies disadvantaged small farmers," Amanda says. Their actions are thought to have contributed to the "rise of the Australian labour tradition", she adds. According to Peter Norden, a history expert from RMIT University, Kelly "was a symbol of those early Australians who defied the authority of the Protestant English establishment". To the poor and disenfranchised underclass, the Kelly Gang seemed to be shrugging off the shackles of the day's social structure. However, Peter acknowledges many are sceptical. Who "would see it as justice that his victims - police officers Michael Scanlan, Michael Kennedy and Thomas Lonigan - have prominent tombstones and a large memorial in the Victorian mountain town of Mansfield, while Kelly lies in an unmarked grave," he says. The Kelly Gang's story still serves as a major tourist draw to Glenrowan.

While none of the original buildings from the famous shootout remain, there are signs and plaques that indicate the site of the original Glenrowan Inn and the location where Ned Kelly was finally captured by police. RELATED ARTICLES

Question: Which famous outlaw was captured at the siege of Glenrowan Farm and later hanged
Answer: Ned Kelly